Questions & Answers about Parou de chover.
Where is the word for "it" in Parou de chover?
In Portuguese, you do not need a dummy subject like "it" for weather verbs. You simply conjugate the verb in the third-person singular. So, parou on its own means "it stopped".
Why do we need the word de in this sentence?
The verb parar (to stop) requires the preposition de when it is followed by another verb. The structure for "to stop doing something" is always parar de + the infinitive of the action verb.
English uses the "-ing" form ("raining"). Why does Portuguese use the infinitive chover instead?
In Portuguese, verbs that come immediately after a preposition (like de) must be in the infinitive form. So, instead of using a continuous form like "raining", Portuguese relies on the infinitive, literally saying "stopped of to rain" (parou de chover).
Why use the past tense parou instead of parava?
Parou is the simple past tense (pretérito perfeito), which shows the action is completely finished, meaning the rain stopped at a specific moment. Parava is the continuous past tense (pretérito imperfeito), which would sound like it used to stop raining or was in the process of stopping, which does not fit this specific, completed event.
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